Unraveled
by M 'n Em
Summary: When Tonks decides to learn how to knit, things don't go as smoothly as she might like.
1. Chapter 1

It was a rare quiet afternoon in the Burrow. Arthur and Percy were still at work, Molly had gone upstairs for a nap, and most of the remaining Weasleys, along with Harry of course, had decided to take advantage of the clear day and play some Quiddich out back. Even Crookshanks had settled into a sunbeam and didn't seem to be inclined to move anytime soon. In fact, aside from the occasional distant shout drifting in from the Quiddich match, the house was almost entirely silent. The only other noises to be heard were some soft clickings, page turnings, and exasperated noises emanating from the living room.

Hermione sat in a corner of the couch, flipping through the book on her lap and occasionally pausing to give one page or another particularly close scrutiny. This was not unusual, and nor were the small noises of frustration she made as she gave up on one page and began looking for another. What was a bit out of the ordinary was the yarn and knitting needles laid out neatly beside her. Every so often she would reach over and pick them up, turning them over in her hands a few times before laying them down again with a huff and returning to her book.

This was the scene that Mrs. Weasley walked in on when she woke up fifteen minutes later. For a while she stood at the foot of the stairs, watching as Hermione switched her attention from book to yarn and back again. At last she stepped forward, clearing her throat lightly to avoid startling the girl before asking, "What are you reading, Hermione dear?"

"Er," Hermione said, coloring a little, "it's a muggle book called _Knitting for Dummies_. Not that I think I'm dumb! I mean, of course I still have a lot to learn, but there's this whole series of books, and I thought that they would have fairly simple and straightforward explanations about how to knit. I want to knit hats for… well, never mind, it's not really important. Only, I just can't seem to understand it." She finally stopped for breath, sending an almost baleful look at the yarn as though accusing it of keeping secrets from her.

"You know," Mrs. Weasley said, walking over to sit on the couch beside the girl, "it is possible to learn knitting from a book, but it's really much easier to have someone show you. If you like, I could help you out…"

"Really? Oh that would be wonderful! I was going to ask, but I wasn't sure you'd have the time and I really thought that the book ought to be able to teach me…" Hermione trailed off, caught between her enthusiasm for learning something new and her bashfulness at being caught needing help. Mrs. Weasley smiled understandingly, bringing her knitting basket down the stairs with a subtle wave of her wand. As she began to search through it, considering and discarding various pairings of yarn and needles, she spoke.

"I learned to knit from my grandmother. I was only eight years old, and my family was having a bit of a get together. No one was really paying attention to me, so I got bored and started wandering the house, and there she was on the sofa, knitting away. I was fascinated, and after I had watched for a while she just started to show me how it was done. When I was a bit older, I tried to thank her for it and tell her how much it meant to me, but she just smiled and thanked me instead, telling me that it was a joy to be able to pass down what she knew to someone else." With a smile, she held up some red wool and a pair of wooden needles before looking over at Hermione. "Well, are you ready to get started, dear?"

Hermione merely nodded, a bit humbled by Mrs. Weasley's story, and then watched intently as Molly began to demonstrate how to cast on.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A while later, after Hermione was starting to get the hang of the knit stitch but long before Mrs. Weasley would have considered showing her how to purl, the serenity was broken by the woosh of green fire, a flash of pink hair, a series of thuds, and some muted swearing from the direction of the fireplace. After a moment in which the knitters exchanged bemused looks a familiar voice called out from the floor,

"Er, nothing died."

"Hullo, Tonks," Hermione replied.

"Wotcher!" Tonks answered, pulling herself upright. "What's up?"

"Mrs. Weasley is showing me how to knit," Hermione said, proudly holding up her work so far. It was a fairly typical first piece, with holes, varying numbers of stitches in each row, and a gauge that went from loose and airy to tight enough that you could beat someone to death with a finished product knit that way. Still, it was recognizably knitting, and slowly but surely it seemed to be improving as it got further from the bottom.

"Oooh, really?" Tonks asked enthusiastically, making her way over to the couch. "I always wanted to learn, but no one would ever teach me. Could you show me, too?" Without waiting for an answer she plonked herself down on the floor next to Mrs. Weasley's knitting basket and began to looking through it, promptly sending balls of yarn bouncing across the room. "Oops… I'll get those."

"Er…" Mrs. Weasley said, even her enthusiasm for sharing her craft seeming to dim in the face of the pink haired young woman scurrying around her living room, bumping into furniture and fishing yarn out of corners and out from under chairs. She was trying to think of a graceful way to back out of it when Tonks returned the final ball of yarn to her basket and sat back down in front of her with such an eager, earnest look on her face that Mrs. Weasley just couldn't refuse. With a small sigh she pulled a ball of yarn from her basket that perfectly matched Tonks' hair, cast onto another pair of wooden needles, handed them over to the young woman in front of her, and picked up her own knitting again.

"This is called the knit stitch…"

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_Hey, this is M. Thanks for reading our first story together! Watch for the next chapter, written by Em, coming soon. In the meantime, any reviews would be greatly appreciated :)_


	2. Chapter 2

Needles. Two needles. Long, straight, sharp needles. Sort of like a wand, except not magical. Yarn. Yarn goes around the needle, the other needle goes through… or was it the yarn that went through… And around… Or was it over… Or…

"Aaaaaaaaah!" Tonks exclaimed in frustration, holding up the tangled yarn on her needles. "Why is this so _hard?!?_" Hermione, who had been knitting slowly but steadily since Mrs. Weasley had left to start dinner, looked up.

"It just takes practice," she said. "It took me a while to get it after Mrs. Weasley showed me how. See?" She held up her knitting to show the early holes and other mistakes in her knitting. Tonks narrowed her eyes.

"Yeah, but look at you now," she said, pointing to the neat rows of stitches that were the results of Hermione's latest work.

"You just have to be patient," Hermione told her practically. "It's not like magic, you can't just wave your wand and have instant results." Tonks picked up her wand and looked at it ruefully.

"Are you sure there's not some way to do this faster?" She raised her wand. "Some kind of knitting spell, like…" Before she could finish the sentence, Harry and Ron poked their heads in the room, both looking windswept.

"Hermione, mum says that dinner will be ready soon," Ron informed them. "She said you'd be in here with Tonks." He blinked at them. "What in the name of Merlin's pants are you doing?"

"Why do you make it sound like it's a bad thing?" Hermione asked defensively, holding up her knitting. "Your mom showed me how."

"I didn't know you wanted to learn how to knit," Harry said curiously, coming in and looking at the needles and yarn in Tonks' lap.

"It's always looked so interesting and relaxing," Tonks said cheerfully. "But I had no idea it was this hard," she added, looking crestfallen again.

"What is that supposed to be?" Ron asked Hermione, walking over and poking his finger through one of the larger holes. "I'm not even sure that's wearable."

"Shut up, Ron," Hermione snapped, yanking her yarn away. "I'm still learning. Like you could do any better."

"Mum actually tried to show me at one point, now that you mention it," Ron said.

"You?" Hermione stared at him, looking skeptical.

"You?" Harry asked, smirking. "Seriously?" Ron's ears turned red.

"Yeah, she sat me and Ginny down and tried to teach us. Neither of us were much into it, though," He hastily added. "Sitting around all the time's too boring."

"Do you still remember how?" Tonks asked eagerly. Ron immediately looked alarmed.

"Er… I think I have to change before dinner," He said, moving quickly towards the door. "Later!" He dashed out of the room, and Harry followed him, stifling laughter.

"Good luck!" He called back over his shoulder as he left.

"Easier said than done," Tonks muttered. She held up her tangle of yarn and needles, then sighed and began the long and annoying process of untangling it.


	3. Chapter 3

Kingsley Shacklebolt was good at keeping a low profile. You would think that with his size, and a voice that was naturally inclined to boom, he would have a more difficult time, but he had long ago figured out that he could get much farther by being unassuming, so he had practiced. He had become so accomplished at it that even most of the Aurors, who were generally more alert than your average person, didn't notice him much. So it was no surprise that when he paused in Tonk's doorway and waited for her to notice him, she utterly failed to do so and continued muttering to herself.

"Rabbit goes through the hole, around the tree, and back down through the hole… but then what was that part about a fox? Maybe it was the rabbit goes through the hole, around the tree, sees the fox, flees in terror, and _then_ goes down the hole? Oh wait, then nothing happens. So what if…"

"Practicing your bowline, Auror Tonks? I had no idea the workshop on muggle knots had interested you so much. In fact, you had rather looked like you were falling asleep at the time." Kingsley offered her a bemused smile.

"Oh, is _that_ what I'm doing?" Tonks asked disgustedly. "No wonder it looks wrong." With a huff she threw an impossible looking tangle of pink string and some wooden sticks on her desk, her hair gaining a distinctly flame-like tinge as she glared at them.

"Er…" said Kingsley, trying to figure out what it was that she was actually trying to do so he wouldn't frustrate her further by having to ask. Luckily, Tonks saved him the trouble by resuming her muttering, seeming to forget for a moment that he was there.

" 'It just takes patience' she says. 'You'll get the hang of it soon' she says. 'Just look at mine,' she says. Yes well, now she's working on her first hat and then that silly muggle specialist has to give that lecture on knots while I'm still trying to figure it out and now I'll have to go back to Molly and have her show me again and –" Kingsley cut her off as everything finally clicked into place.

"Learning to knit, then?" He asked.

'Trying," Tonks replied, though what she really seemed to be trying to do at the moment was wandlessly light the mess on fire.

"You never struck me as the domestic type," Kingsley offered, perhaps a little more wryly than he intended. After all, the entire office remembered the biscuits she had baked them for the holidays. General consensus, from those who had the knowledge to make the comparison, was that Hagrid's rock cakes were preferable, though if there had been an intruder in the Auror's breakroom that winter they could have just pelted him to death with them and not bothered with any magic.

"It just looked so _easy_," Tonks whined, finally looking up at him. "How was I supposed to know it was this… this… impossible!"

"Well…" said Kingsley, pausing for a moment to quickly run over possible platitudes in his head. After a moment, he discarded them as being too similar to what she had been muttering about a moment earlier and decided to try a different tack. "You know, work probably isn't the best place for this anyways. Don't you have a case to be working on?"

"Nope!" Tonks said, shaking her head cheerily before prattling on about the case she had just wrapped up. Kingsley mentally congratulated himself on the distraction. He had known, of course, that she had just finished up her latest case, and that it had been a spectacular success besides. It was why he had come by in the first place, to congratulate her on it and fill her in on her new assignment. As he hoped, talking about it took her mind off the supposed knitting, to the point where her hair began to resume its more normal, though still blinding, shade.

" – so now that that's all wrapped up, I don't really have anything going on," Tonks concluded. She glanced down at her desk, and her face began to take on a slightly more sullen cast as she once again caught sight of the needles and yarn.

"Well then," Kingsley said hurriedly, "There's this new case that's come up. Why don't you come with me and we'll talk about it? I think there's still a few biscuits left in the breakroom…" As he herded the younger Auror out of the room, he subtly knocked the knitting under her desk. With any luck, she would forget about it, or the house elves would clean it up before she noticed. After all, along with being unobtrusive, Kingsley had also learned to be observant, and he didn't really think the décor of the office would be improved by knitting-induced fires.

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_M again. Hope you're enjoying the story so far! Thank you so much for the kind reviews we've received, we really appreciate them! It's Em's turn again next, so stay tuned for another chapter._


	4. Chapter 4

Surveillance had never been Tonks's strong point. Sure, she was good at disguising herself. She could disguise herself in any crowd with a thought and a quick change in appearance. However, when it came to _subtle… _Well, that just wasn't her. In any sense of the word. Which is why her new assignment from Kingsley wasn't something she was looking forward to.

"I know you don't like shadowing people, but this is an important task," he told her when she protested. "This is a very important Japanese wizard who's visiting, and we need to make sure that he has the best security the Ministry can offer. He, however, has expressed his disdain for having any security at all, and is determined to ride Muggle transportation in. You're the only person I can count on to really and truly blend into a Muggle crowd." Tonks winced.

"I know, the rest of them are bullocks at remembering how to dress and act," she said resignedly. "You're _sure_ it has to be me?"

"You're the only one I'd trust on this who's available," Kingsley said firmly. "Use whatever disguise you want, and be ready tomorrow." Tonks recognized this as a dismissal and stood with a sigh. She wandered back to her desk, thinking back on disguises she had used in the past. With the only requirement being that she had to blend into a Muggle bus, she had a lot of options. She stopped at her desk and frowned.

"Something no one would ever suspect…" she muttered to herself. Then, her eyes caught a small tail of yarn peeking out from under her desk. An idea formed in her mind, and she slowly grinned. That would work perfectly.

Oo-oOo-oO

It had been a normal day for Henry Fitzgerald. He had gotten up, kissed his wife good bye, and gone to work. At work, he hadn't really been disturbed by anyone. He'd made some phone calls, filed some paperwork, and eaten his lunch in peaceful quiet. When four o' clock rolled around, he had packed up his briefcase and gotten on a bus home. He had noticed the foreigner on the bus, but not really thought anything of it. He was peacefully beginning to drift off to sleep when he heard a muttering from in front of him.

A little old lady, dressed all in purple, was knitting. She was muttering very quietly to herself under her breath as she did so. He frowned, but didn't really think anything was off. She was very old looking, after all. Maybe she needed to mutter stitches under her breath to be able to concentrate. There was nothing wrong with that, and it was naturally good to be respectful of the elderly. He went back to drifting off to sleep.

"Bugger!" Henry whipped his head around, staring at the old lady. She was muttering, not so quietly now, a very steady stream of curse words under her breath as she looked at the knitting in her hand. Henry, not normally one to interact with strangers, felt a need to speak up.

"Er… excuse me, are you all right?" He asked her tentatively.

"What? Er, oh yes, fine," the old lady told him with a quick smile. "Just trying to figure out this bloody yarn and sticks… I mean, just working on my knitting." Henry nodded uncertainly and looked away again. This time, however, he kept an ear on what she was saying.

"…let's see here, it goes under the loop and around this needle, or was it this one, and then you have to pull it through, but then which one slips off? Oh, this is the part that always messes me up… Stupid idea for a disguise really when I don't even know how to work the things… Oh, Merlin's pants!" The last was said as an oath of sorts as the yarn somehow managed to get caught on the lady's hat. The foreigner looked over at her in surprise – really, Henry was amazed he hadn't earlier. The entire bus was now watching the old lady with a sort of morbid curiosity. She seemed to notice and looked up, a little wild eyed.

"Oh, is this my stop?" she said in a slightly hysterical voice. Sure enough, she left the bus not long after, and the stop after a nondescript teenager with shoulder length brown hair and headphones took her place. Henry turned back to his nap with a sort of relief. That old lady wasn't like most, that was for sure. Perhaps her mind was going?

He shrugged to himself. At least it would be a story to tell his wife when he got home.

Oo-oOo-oO

Tonks sat guiltily across from Kingsley, who was giving her a Look. She squirmed a little. Okay, so the "little old lady" route had been a bad idea. And she'd pretty much given herself away to the Japanese wizard. And she'd ruined her knitting and the decoration on the hat she'd been wearing at the same time. But at least she'd had the foresight to Apparate to the next bus stop and complete the job in a better disguise, right? And the job _had_ gotten done.

Unfortunately, Kingsley didn't seem to see it that way.

"I do not even have words for this," he informed her in a flat tone of voice. "I will just ask you this. What, in the name of everything the Aurors stand for, made you think this was a good idea?"

"Well… I _have_ been learning to knit," Tonks told him earnestly. "And so, you know, I thought it would work well. Especially since Mrs. Weasley told me that no one ever pays attention to you when you're knitting. It's like they think you can't notice anything else because of it. So I thought for going unnoticed…"

"You would use a wizarding swear phrase in the middle of a Muggle bus," Kingsley finished for her.

"At least I finished the job," Tonks muttered.

"That is one good point battling with about ten against you," Kingsley informed her. He rubbed his forehead, looking tired. "Have you at least learned a lesson from this?"

"Yes, sir!" Tonks said proudly.

"Involving knitting, one can only hope?" Tonks nodded. "And that lesson is…?" Kingsley prompted.

"I need more practice!" Tonks said proudly. Kingsley gave her a look that suggested him wanting to strangle something. She shrank a little in her chair. "Er… I should go now, shouldn't I?" she asked.

"I think you should," Kingsley said carefully. "It's your break next week, so… go and relax somewhere."

"Yes sir." Tonks turned to leave the office, but was stopped by Kingsley.

"One more thing." She turned to look at him questioningly. "I… have a letter that I'm going to write to Molly Weasley. If you're stopping by the Burrow, would you drop it off?"

"I was planning to go there anyways!" Tonks said enthusiastically. Kingsley nodded wearily.

"Come pick it up before you leave, then."


End file.
